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Re: FW: [BCAlist] Urgent Piping plover request

From:

Denise Ryan

Reply-To:

Denise Ryan

Date:

Thu, 3 Nov 2005 17:39:26 -0500

I'll be there for DC Audubon.  Thanks for sending it around.
If I may be so bold, if you can't attend, send your comments to http://parkplanning.nps.gov/CAHA

Also, read their reports on birds.  Colonial and nesting seabirds on the islands have been in serious decline for many years.
Getting ORVs off the island during nesting season is a vital part of the recovery of the Piping Plover, Black Skimmer, Least Tern, American Oystercatcher, Gull Billed Tern to name a few.

Reports - http://www.nps.gov/caha/nathistory.htm

Denise Ryan
Cheverly, MD

-----Original Message-----
From: Maryland Birds & Birding [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Norm Saunders
Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 5:12 PM
To: 
Subject: [MDOSPREY] FW: [BCAlist] Urgent Piping plover request
Importance: High


Another endangered species alert.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: CKennedy <mailto:[log in to unmask]>  
To:  
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2005 11:46 AM
Subject: [BCAlist] Urgent Piping plover request


Attention all local BCA members -- Please try and attend this
important meeting. If you cannot attend but would like to comment,
please send a written statement to me and we will submit it for the
record.



ALERT
Defend Threatened and Endangered Species on America's National
Seashores!!   Tell the National Park Service to Protect Wildlife and
Plants on Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Attend National Park Service Public Scoping Meeting
in Washington, D.C.
NOVEMBER 3
CITY MUSEUM, 801 K St. NW
5:30-9:30 pm

The National Park Service (NPS) is conducting a set of three public
scoping meetings to gather public opinion about an interim plan to
protect several threatened and endangered species-including the
piping plover and several species of sea turtles-from the impacts of
Off-Road Vehicles (ORVs) driving on the beaches of Cape Hatteras
National Seashore.

The last of these public meetings is scheduled for Thursday,
November 3 from 5:30-9:00 pm here in Washington, D.C. at the City
Museum, located at 801 K St. N.W.  The public hearing portion of the
program will run from 7-8 pm and you can sign up to speak during
that time, or you can come earlier, from 5:30-6:30, or later, from
8:00-9:00 for an open house, in which you can discuss the issues
informally with NPS representatives.

Since the two NPS public meeting being held in NC near the national
seashore are likely to be dominated by pro-ORV speakers, it is
critical that those who care about protecting the wilderness values,
and the birds and turtles of Cape Hatteras come out for this D.C.
meeting to give some balance to the NPS process.

Please come by and make your feelings known to the NPS!!!!

NPS has embarked on a process to develop an Off-Road Vehicle
Management Plan for Cape Hatteras National Seashore, but it will
take until 2008 to put this plan into effect.

Therefore, NPS must develop an Interim set of management actions and
decisions that will offer protection for several species of
protected animals, including the threatened piping plover, which
nests near the beach and whose young chicks feed where the ORVs
drive.

Unfortunately, but predictably, the Bush Administration is siding
with the ORV groups who are demanding that NPS not limit driving on
the beach even during the critical nesting season.  ORV groups
vehemently oppose any efforts to require for permits to drive on the
beach or set limits on numbers, times or otherwise restrict their
recreation on the beaches of the park.

These groups ignore the fact that by law every national seashore in
the country that allows ORV use on the beach is required (and has
been since the mid-1970s) to have a management plan in place that
sets limits, controls speeds, requires permits, and protects
wildlife from adverse impacts.  Cape Hatteras is the only major
national seashore in America that has failed to develop a plan that
manages recreation to protect wildlife.  Others, including Cape Cod,
Assateague Island, Fire Island, approved their plans years ago.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a unit of the national park system,
by law is intended to be "conserved...unimpaired" and the wildlife
therein is to be protected from adverse impacts.  Unique among the
national seashores, the law that established Cape Hatteras requires
NPS to manage it for its "wilderness" experiences.  Clearly today,
it does not do so.

We need your help on November 3.  The survival of the Piping Plover
and other species may depend on it! 



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